What a beautiful and heartbreaking story. So worth watching. And it has plenty of wry humor with the occasional laugh out loud moments to keep it from being too heavy.
I guess first I'll say this – don't look anything up before hand. I tend to watch movies with my laptop open and going, especially if they are based on a true story/history. Since this is based on a true story, I was googling all kinds of things, which of course gave me a little too much information too soon.
OK, quick synopsis. "Philomena" was one of the girls incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries. This is a part of the story you can google without anything from the movie being ruined. These laundries were run by nuns for decades, in both Ireland and Australia, and apparently there was a similar situation run by the Catholic church in Spain. Girls and women who were considered sinful, wayward, etc. were sent to these nunneries for supposed education and rehabilitation. Instead, they were used for slave labor. Some were girls who had grown up as wards of the state, some were sent there because of petty crimes or because of running away, and some were sent there by their parents after they became pregnant. The situations were horrific, girl's babies were taken from them and sold to adoptive parents, girls and babies died in terrible labor circumstances, the girls were not educated, not fed well, and were treated like criminals. Some were kept there for years, well into adulthood.
The movie is rated PG-13 for two F words and two Irish versions of the F word (fecking). There are the occasional comments that are a bit outré, but overall it's quite a clean movie despite the subject.
Philomena ends up working with a down-on-his-luck journalist to try and find the son that was taken from her when she was locked in the Magdalene laundries. The movie is the story of her search and the relationship between her and the journalist. As usual, Judi Dench is spectacular. If I hadn't have seen her act in so many other movies, it would have seemed like she was just being who I would think she was in real life, a somewhat befuddled older woman with a sad story. She nails the hilarious comments and perspective of an older lady, with the added Irish perspective as well, which can be quite amusing when she is commenting on something American from the Irish perspective.
The humor is wry and very well done. Steve Coogan plays the journalist and also co-wrote the story. He is excellent in the role and the combination of his and Judi Dench's talents is truly wonderful. In addition to the story itself, there are some beautiful human learning moments.
I guess first I'll say this – don't look anything up before hand. I tend to watch movies with my laptop open and going, especially if they are based on a true story/history. Since this is based on a true story, I was googling all kinds of things, which of course gave me a little too much information too soon.
OK, quick synopsis. "Philomena" was one of the girls incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries. This is a part of the story you can google without anything from the movie being ruined. These laundries were run by nuns for decades, in both Ireland and Australia, and apparently there was a similar situation run by the Catholic church in Spain. Girls and women who were considered sinful, wayward, etc. were sent to these nunneries for supposed education and rehabilitation. Instead, they were used for slave labor. Some were girls who had grown up as wards of the state, some were sent there because of petty crimes or because of running away, and some were sent there by their parents after they became pregnant. The situations were horrific, girl's babies were taken from them and sold to adoptive parents, girls and babies died in terrible labor circumstances, the girls were not educated, not fed well, and were treated like criminals. Some were kept there for years, well into adulthood.
The movie is rated PG-13 for two F words and two Irish versions of the F word (fecking). There are the occasional comments that are a bit outré, but overall it's quite a clean movie despite the subject.
Philomena ends up working with a down-on-his-luck journalist to try and find the son that was taken from her when she was locked in the Magdalene laundries. The movie is the story of her search and the relationship between her and the journalist. As usual, Judi Dench is spectacular. If I hadn't have seen her act in so many other movies, it would have seemed like she was just being who I would think she was in real life, a somewhat befuddled older woman with a sad story. She nails the hilarious comments and perspective of an older lady, with the added Irish perspective as well, which can be quite amusing when she is commenting on something American from the Irish perspective.
The humor is wry and very well done. Steve Coogan plays the journalist and also co-wrote the story. He is excellent in the role and the combination of his and Judi Dench's talents is truly wonderful. In addition to the story itself, there are some beautiful human learning moments.